Posted November 3, 2006 by CLC Staff

Web “Widget” Will Document Voter Problems

As Election Day approaches, the Campaign Legal Center has received word about a new and useful tool available to voters.    In collaboration with the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation and with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Institute, a website has been created where voters from across the country can log on and record any problems they encounter on Election Day.  Because of the dramatic increase of electronic voting machines, the problems that have been encountered with many of those machines in primary elections and during early voting in some states, and longstanding concerns about the integrity of the democratic process, the www.VoterStory.org website was created.  On this website, a distributed web “widget” will help record and gather individual voter problems experienced nationwide on Election Day.

VoterStory.org is an open source distributed web site widget that a number of organizations are being asked to publicize by placing information about it on their website.   Those who created the Voter Story widget are hopeful that its existence will spread across the web and throughout the country so voters who are having trouble can get their story recorded.

As you will see if you access the website, the tool is designed to document individual instances or stories where a voter is having trouble voting or has been denied the right to vote. Once a “story” is submitted, it will automatically be referred to nonprofit, nonpartisan voter protection organizations that will be standing by to intervene or lend support, if they can. The goal is simple:  VoterStory.org will increase the capacity to address the specific voter problems that may occur on Election Day by organizing the relevant stories and making sure the information is forwarded to the appropriate authorities. Voters using the system will receive an e-mail confirmation and will be registered in a database of election incidents that can be used by numerous groups to document the need for election reforms in the future.

We encourage others to visit VoterStory.org, register their organization, and help those who created this useful tool to roll out this important utility. We also encourage readers to spread the word to other groups active in this election so they will consider joining in this effort. Every voter should be able to go to the polls with the confidence that their vote will count.

With your help, VoterStory.org can play a vital role in ensuring protecting voters now and in future elections.